Letters from Richard Burton on show at National Library

A DRAMA teacher friend of screen legend Richard Burton was so determined to join him in the acting business he stunned pupils and fellow teachers by walking out in the middle of a class to head for an audition in London.

A DRAMA teacher friend of screen legend Richard Burton was so determined to join him in the acting business he stunned pupils and fellow teachers by walking out in the middle of a class to head for an audition in London.

Dennis Burgess, who grew up in Port Talbot with Burton, had been leading a drama lesson in the town’s Glanafan Comprehensive when a phone call informed him of the audition that evening.

He got the role as Captain Cook in the 1970s TV series, The Explorers, leaving his teaching career behind.

And now letters written by Burton to Burgess over the following years, made public for the first time, show how the star tried to give his old friend “a leg up” in the movie business.

The letters and telegrams from Burton to his old friend are being shown at the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth later this month.

They include an invite for Burgess to Burton’s 50th birthday party in 1975 from his then wife Elizabeth Taylor.

The letters, some written on location, often relate to Burton’s efforts to help his friend’s acting career.

Len Turner, formerly headmaster of Glanafan Comprehensive’s Lower School, said Dennis Burgess was a “a real character” who was popular with teachers and pupils alike.

“He was half way through the lesson when I was told he just walked out,” he said.

“We saw nothing of him for months and the next thing we knew he was starring as Captain Cook on TV.

“We forgave him because he was a lovely bloke, but he was desperate to become an actor.

“He was talented at drama and he went on to appear on TV quite a bit so he achieved his ambition and we were all pleased for him.”

Mr Burgess, who died in the 1980s, appeared in the movie Bluebeard alongside Richard Burton.

Talking about how he would try to get Mr Burgess a part in the film in one of the letters, Burton says of his own role as the pirate: “I kill seven of my wives in various fiendish ways.”

Although Dennis Burgess did a lot of theatre work many of his acting jobs throughout the 1970s were small parts in popular TV series such The Professionals, The Sandbaggers, Space 1999, Within These Walls and Public Eye.

He also made an appearance in the 1980 movie The Elephant Man.

The Burton letters on show at Aberystwyth also reveal how Burton’s children, including his daughter Kate (now a successful US actor starring in Grey’s Anatomy) encouraged him to appear in the 1968 film Where Eagles Dare with US star Clint Eastwood.

He says in one of the letters to his friend: “I was instructed to find a film in which I killed a great many people like J Bond and remain alive at the end.”

The library bought the letters, which included one to Burgess from actor Sir John Gielgud, for around £800 from Bloomsbury Auctions.

There is also a telegram from Elizabeth Taylor, then Elizabeth Burton, inviting Burgess and his wife to Burton’s 50th birthday party at the Dorchester Hotel in London. The invitation says the party is in the hotel’s Orchid Suite and the dress code is formal or informal.

A spokesman for the library said it was delighted to have acquired the letters, which are from the late 1960s and early 1970s although some do not carry dates.

They will be on show at the library’s recent acquisitions exhibition which runs from February 28 to March 27 this year.

A number of Burton’s diaries, including his wartime memories of looking across Swansea Bay to see German bombers at work, are already on show at Swansea University, courtesy of his widow Sally Burton, who now lives in Australia.